About Friends of Padhar Schools…
In 2008, I was invited to join the team, to work with the children of the German team and to help paint a mural at one of the village schools. Through conversations with the teachers and administrators, I learned about the needs of the 4 schools in the village. After the trip I began a modest scholarship program that raised $1000 to support 10 students at the Padhar Mission Higher Secondary School. Each year thereafter, we raised more and more and it became a dream to establish an American non-profit organization, to support the schools of the village. In 2015, those informal efforts became formalized and we formed our Board of Directors, developed our programs, gained our 501(c)3 tax exemption and we became Friends of Padhar Schools.
Since 2015, Friends of Padhar Schools has provided a foundation for rural schools operating at a subsistence level. We’ve provided funding for desks and benches to ensure classrooms are suitable for students, scholarships for girls and young women to attend classes, computers to fill a computer lab, equipment to fill a chemistry lab and a school bus to provide transportation for children who live in distant villages.
Rev. Dr. Krista S. Givens
With a deep passion for helping children, I was called by God in 1998 and began my journey toward the life of an itinerant minister, a disciple of Jesus and an advocate for children throughout the world. I have been fortunate in my educational opportunities, with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Scripps College (1994), Masters of Divinity (2001) and Doctor of Ministry (2007) from Claremont School of Theology. I was ordained as an Elder in the California-Pacific Annual Conference in 2005.
Immediately following my graduation from CST, I began work as an Associate Pastor at Kailua UMC on the island of Oahu. After 3 years, I was appointed to be the pastor at Westchester UMC in Los Angeles. After formative trip with a Cal-Pac delegation to visit churches in Nigeria, I applied to be a missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries and was appointed in 2007 to be the pastor of an English-Speaking church in Hamburg, Germany. For five years, I served as a missionary in Hamburg, itinerating throughout Southern California and Hawaii and working to encourage churches to connect with GBGM missionaries. During my time in Hamburg, I was invited to visit a mission project in India and began fundraising efforts to support schools in rural India.
In 2012, I returned to Cal-Pac annual Conference and spent 4 years serving as the pastor at Kona UMC on the Big Island and working to develop my India Project into a 501(c)3 organization. In 2015, Friends of Padhar Schools was born and currently I am the the Executive Director with a Board of Directors who work to support education for children in India.
In January 2017, I took an interim appointment at Walnut UMC and it turned out to be a terrific match. For five years, we worked together to grow the congregation, then we adapted to virtual worship and finally settled into a hybrid worship schedule, with modified in-person worship and an online service.
In December of 2021, I completed my ministry at Walnut UMC and rejoined the ranks of the GBGM missionaries. From January of 2022 to December of 2024 I served as the pastor of La Siesta Evangelical (meaning Protestant) Church in Torrevieja, Alicante, Spain, an international, ecumenical, English-speaking congregation, made of people from various backgrounds: Baptist, Methodist, United Reform, Church of England, Church of Scotland, Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Presbyterian Church in Ireland and many others.
In January 2025, after finishing my 3 years of missionary service, I returned to the California Pacific Annual Conference and have been appointed as the pastor of North Hollywood First United Methodist Church. For more information about NoHo First, click on their website: https://nohofumc.org/